One of the hardest things about living in a police state is watching other people be crushed by state power and feeling unable to do a thing about it.

We read Pastor Neimoeller’s famous lines as a warning to ourselves. But really, there’s not much chance of heeding the warning in a way that changes anything — except perhaps for the worse.

We can’t watch others be crushed without feeling a stab of their agony. We know, as others are crushed, that the crushing machinery gathers momentum and will roll toward our own lives. We know that not only we, but the ideals that sustain civilization, are being crushed. And that matters to us. Matters vitally, painfully, heartbreakingly. No matter what else we do, we can’t stand by and watch that happen without feeling an obligation — or at least a passionate longing — to do our all to stop it.

But how? What? And why does it keep rolling on so inexorably when so many are speaking out?

So we come back to the question: What’s the responsibility of a resident of a police state? If mere speaking out doesn’t change anything, what does? And how do we do it?

Read the whole thing. The article captures the dilemma of every moral person, just now. How can we make it stop?

Claire is smarter than most of us. We'll see more of her thoughts in the next installment (part 2+?).

But here is my response, today-

“Let me see your papers”, and “Just following orders” were phrases we heard about other countries and other times- Now we see it here.

One thing I have been doing (perhaps stupidly) is engaging local ‘enforcers’ in discussions, and also on-line. I commented several times at Massad Ayoob Backwoods Blog regarding the murder of Jose Guerena- But Mr Ayoob sides with the storm troopers ‘just doing their job’, ‘just following procedure’ as they kill and kidnap citizens. Every suspect must submit or die, in his weltanschau. Anyone who dares question the tactics is no longer viewed as a citizen/his employer, but rather as a “cop hater”. So they create their mental barriers, to allow them to do what they do, to continue to pay their mortgage, to continue to ‘follow orders’.

I now understand how the colonists felt when the Redcoats demanded obedience.

At a press conference this morning, presidential candidate and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann said that President Obama’s scare tactics about going into default on the government’s financial obligations, if the debt ceiling is not raised, are “simply not true.” Appearing beside her, Representatives Louis Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA) said the same about Obama’s threats to freeze Social Security checks and military funding.

It is remarkable that this simple truth about government funding has been obscured to the point that Bachmann, Gohmert, and King have to hold a press conference to restate it.If the debt ceiling is not raised, it means the government cannot go further into debt.Obama’s wild spending spree left us at the point where hundreds of billions in new debt per year are necessary to keep up with the exploding cost of existing government programs, and interest on the national debt.In fact, the government will spend $1.6 trillion more than it collects in revenue this year.

If we don’t raise the debt ceiling, that means spending would have to be cut by the amount of new debt that would have been needed.In other words, we’d have to cut that $1.6 trillion in excessive spending, rather than throw it atop the moldy pile of debt bones piled up in Uncle Sam’s basement.Barack Obama has increased government spending by more than twice that much since he took office two years ago.

If we can add so much spending in such a mad rush, why can’t we cut it with equal efficiency? That’s just crazy talk, right?Tax cuts are fragile things that could be crushed at any moment, but Big Government spending programs instantly become mighty oaks with roots sunk into a legion of fiercely protective dependents.You can’t just cut those programs with a single vote in the dark of night, on a bill nobody read, the way they were created!If nothing else, think of how unemployment would spike, with all those government functionaries and bureaucrats suddenly bounced out of their jobs!

That all sounds like a strong argument to never let the national debt get a nickel higher to me, but I guess some people don’t think of it that way.None of us should be willing to put up with fraudulent scare tactics.Why don’t we compel the President to go on the record with a list of his concrete funding priorities, if the debt limit is not raised on August 2?

He could easily produce such a list.He spends most of his time fundraising for his re-election, so of course he’d chafe at having to actually sit in the office for a while and do his job, but he has a gigantic staff to assist him.

Antebellum Massachusetts mills in Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Fall River, Taunton and Chicopee needed raw cotton provided by slave labor in the American South; New York and international bankers provided the credit for planters and exchange that kept vast plantations in business and producing cotton. Ending the profitability of Northern factories and banking houses dependent on African slave labor might well have saved a million American lives 1861-1865.

Bernhard Thuersam, ChairmanNorth Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commissionwww.ncwbts150.com"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"========Perpetuating Slavery in the American South:

“Private bankers conducted much of the exchange business in Mobile as in other Southern cities that lacked sufficient local banking facilities. These exchange brokers competed with each other and with banks for the fees earned from buying and selling notes drawn on foreign and domestic banks and mercantile houses.

St. John, Powers and Company, the oldest and strongest local private banking firm, handled the bulk of local financial business not conducted by banks. The senior partner, Newton St. John, a native New Yorker who moved to Mobile in the 1830’s, maintained banking ties with Duncan Sherman and Company, and August Belmont in New York. St. John faced competition in the exchange business from the Bank of Mobile and two local agencies of major international banking houses. After the Panic of 1837 Brown Brothers and Company [of New York City] opened permanent branches in Mobile and New Orleans to compete for the extensive exchange business conducted in the Gulf cotton ports.

By the 1850’s Charles Dickey, the manager of the Brown agency, and Archibald Gracie, the local agent of the international [London] banking firm of Baring Brothers, contested the market for sterling bills with St. John and the Bank of Mobile. Attempting to increase their volume of business, St. John, Powers and Company and Brown Brothers and Company lowered their rate of profit on transactions. Charles Dickey…indeed handled some transactions in 1852 without a commission to stop his customers from going to his competitors. Yet he declined to accept bills from firms that were judged unable to pay their debts.

Besides banking, Mobile’s commercial activities required insurance services. Nonlocal firms, often with very large assets, maintained agencies in Mobile…[and] by 1833 companies from Augusta, New Orleans and Hartford [Connecticut] operated offices in Mobile. By 1845 three companies from New York and one each from Hartford, Boston, and Augusta employed local agents. Sometimes there were as many or more such agencies as there were local companies.

As an aid to commerce…prominent businessmen eventually persuaded the aldermen to enact an ordinance requiring the systematic numbering of buildings within the city. In 1858 Robert S. Bunker, a New York-born insurance agent and former president of the common council, presented the aldermen with a petition for building numbers signed by sixty merchants.”

Several weeks ago I overheard a conversation about Republican presidential candidates in which one person insisted, “We need a candidate with charisma.” The word “charisma” comes from the Greek, kharisma, meaning divine favor. In New Testament Christian perspective it referred to extraordinary powers or abilities granted by the Holy Spirit. Current dictionary definitions of charisma define it as a rare personal magnetic charm and ability to arouse popular devotion and enthusiasm. However, I suggest that insisting on political candidates having charisma, either by the New Testament or the modern secular definition, is a misguided and dangerous idea. Certainly, being able to communicate ideas, facts, and principles clearly is an important quality for any leader, but beyond being a good communicator, there are more important qualities that we should insist upon for our political leaders.

It would be a tremendous national blessing to have a President whose character and wisdom were strongly influenced by the Holy Spirit, but looking for divine favor in the form of miraculous motivational skills is near blasphemous folly. Picking political leaders primarily by their ability to sway crowds and arouse popular devotion and enthusiasm is fraught with cataclysmic dangers. It is just asking for a clone of Adolf Hitler, who was the clearest manifestation of these qualities in the 20th Century. We do not want to place our future in the hands of demagogues or demigods. If we want honest, competent, and fair government; and if we want lasting freedom, peace, and prosperity for ourselves and our posterity, we must insist on evidences of superior wisdom and tested moral character and shun the idolatry of charismatic politicians.

Governing a republic of 308 million—guiding her through the perils of inevitable hardships, through the dangers set by implacable and powerful enemies at home and abroad, and past the moral hazards of political, economic, and social folly—is a daunting responsibility. Common sense cries out for leaders of superior intelligence, understanding, and the accumulated wisdom of experience at high levels of responsibility. We need political candidates with both strong people skills and the intellectual and moral qualities necessary for real leadership, not charismatic showmen with little more than glib verbal fluency.

Clemson University Professor David Woodard, the author of two books on President Ronald Reagan, comments that while Reagan was an excellent communicator, his primary leadership characteristics were character, conviction, and courage. Ronald Reagan was transparently honest and selfless in his devotion to the good of his fellow Americans. He was not a West Pointer, but he was a living reflection of the West Point Motto: Duty, Honor, Country. He unabashedly admitted that that his basic principles were from the Bible. He placed a high value on truth, loyalty, and hard work. People who met him sensed that he was genuinely interested in them and glad to be with them. He was a fellow you could trust.

His vision was not of the grandeur of high office or its credits, praises, and honors. His vision for America was from the Sermon on the Mount: a shining city on a hill whose good works would give glory to God. (Matthew 5: 14-16.) His determination was to do the right, fair, and honest thing to make America a great nation blessed by God and a blessing to the world. The measure of character is that its virtues are constant. Reagan did not change with this or that political wind. You could depend on him. Character is far more important than charisma, and thus we must adjust our political thinking in that direction or risk the calamity that befalls peoples who cast away truth and virtue

“An honest man’s the noblest work of God”—Alexander Pope, 1688-1744

“Wisdom is found only in truth.”—Johann Goethe, 1749-1832

What I have noticed about the most effective communicators is that they speak with conviction. They believe strongly in their ideas, principles, and goals. When they believe something is right, they stick to it. It is not covered up, murmured, or backpedaled. They present their ideas straight from the heart with energy, firmness, and boldness. Conviction is evidence of firmly held principles and the will to persevere against difficulties and opposition. Conviction is a manifestation of strong character. Personal charm and charisma are not its equal.

Courage is the ultimate virtue. Samuel Johnson said, “Where courage is not, no other virtue can survive except by accident.” Other virtues are buried and ineffective unless they are accompanied by courage. British writer and philosopher C. S. Lewis gave this stunning account of courage:

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point…A chastity or honesty or mercy, which yields to danger, will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky.”

Ultimately all courage, including political courage and courage in battle, is moral courage. Moral courage more often than not is tested principally by time, often a long period of time. Moral courage is resolute and always accompanied by the will to persevere through hardships and disappointments. In the darkest days of World War II, Winston Churchill exhorted the British people to “…victory, however long and hard the road may be.”

Courageous leaders do not seek to remain safely politically correct. They do not have an excessive fear of being misunderstood, and they do not quickly wither and retreat under the favorite attack words of the liberal press. Their loyalty to principles and friends does not faint under criticism or controversy.

I still believe the American people will follow a leader who demonstrates intellectual competence, wisdom, vision, character, conviction, and courage. This time, our national survival depends upon it.

It doesn't make sense. Our economy is a shambles because our industry has been driven to China by high taxes and myriad regulations. As a result China has accumulated hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars by selling us products that we formerly made. Now Communist-Chinese-run corporations are showing up in the U.S. to buy up land and natural resources, and establish businesses. And, what's frightening about all of this is that many of our governors are salivating over the potential for Chinese investments in their states to the extent that they are considering establishing multi-faceted partnerships with their communist Chinese counterparts to expedite these developments.

Grassroots concern over these budding partnerships between U.S. governors and Communist Chinese officials is increasing as the first U.S.-China Governors Forum convenes in conjunction with an annual meeting of the National Governors Association in Salt Lake City July 15-17.

Read "U.S.-China Governors Forum: Not All Sweetness & Harmony" by William F. Jasper to learn the details of this new initiative between our U.S. governors and their Chinese communist counterparts that was set up by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this year.

Art Thompson, CEO of The John Birch Society has sent an open letter to all 50 governors urging them not to participate in the U.S.-China Governors Forum in Salt Lake City later this week.

Take a good look at the world-famous image above of the freedom-loving Chinese man facing down a whole column of tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Do you want your governor participating in a forum designed to develop continuously deepening partnerships with officials in the same Communist Party that sent the tanks to Tiananmen Square?

Time is short. The U.S.-China Governors Forum begins on this Friday, July 15. Phone and/or email your governor and ask him or her to boycott the forum. In short, tell them: "No Partnership With Communist China!"

Quartzsite Police Chief Jeff Gilbert has asked the town council to declare a “state of emergency” due to all of the publicity the town has received over the arrest of a reporter at an open meeting in June.

The town council voted 5-0 in favor of the action; Mayor Ed Foster did not attend the emergency meeting Sunday afternoon. Gilbert reportedly said the action was needed because Jennifer Jones was “inciting riots” after videos of her arrest at the meeting sprung up across the Internet.

It was not immediately clear what outside assistance, if any, Gilbert seeks to enforce the state of emergency.

Josephine County, Oregon -When Gil Gilbertson was sworn is as Sheriff of Josephine County, a rural county in southwest Oregon, in 2007, he had 30 years of law enforcement experience behind him, both in the United States and with various military missions overseas.

So when citizens of the county began coming to him complaining of “harassment” by U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers (LEO), he said he’d investigate their concerns, figuring he could work things out with the local ranger district. After all, as the county’s chief law enforcement officer he was in the “club” and moreover had gotten along with the “feds” -- though he disagreed with their road closing policies and other efforts to keep the public off public lands which cover 68 percent of the rural county.

“You know, until about a year ago this wasn’t even on my radar,” Gilbertson told NewsWithViews. “It was the miners that were coming to me saying they were being harassed. I said I’d look into it.”

He contacted the local ranger district for information, but instead of answers he was bluntly told that No, they couldn’t, wouldn’t discuss anything about any complaints with him, but he could file a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request and they’d get back to him.

“Go Pound Sand”

As talk-radio host Bill Meyer [of KMED] put it in an interview with Gilbertson, the Forest Service had essentially told the sheriff to “go pound sand.” Federal agencies are notorious for taking months and years to answer FOIAs Meyer said.

“I’m not going to file any FOIA,” Gilbertson told Meyer. “I think that they’re obligated to impart that information to me.”

On May 5, Gilbertson sent a blistering letter to the District Ranger of the Wild Rivers Ranger District in Caves Junction, setting down in no uncertain terms his objections not only to the Forest Service response to his requests for information but his dissatisfaction with USFS policies.

We are concerned about recent reports that suggest similarities between “Operation Castaway,” a firearms trafficking investigation led by the Tampa Field Offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and “Operation Fast and Furious,” an ATF program that provided firearms to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Specifically, reports indicate that firearms under “Operation Castaway” may have been provided to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras, including MS-13.

If true, these reports raise serious questions about the leadership of the ICE and ATF Tampa Field Offices. We support ICE’s efforts to disrupt criminal syndicates that traffic in firearms, drugs, and other illicit substances. However, when those efforts serve to fuel the operations of criminal enterprises through the provision of firearms, they must be stopped and those responsible must be held accountable. In an effort to address this issue, we would appreciate your response to the following questions.

1. What role did ICE agents and leadership play in “Operation Castaway?”

2. Can you confirm whether “Operation Castaway” included a gun walking scheme that allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras? If so, have any of these firearms ended up in the possession of the notorious MS-13 gang?

3. How many guns have been allowed to pass into Honduras and how many have since been accounted for?

4. Were these weapons subject to any special monitoring processes once they left the United States?

5. Is “Operation Castaway” still ongoing? If so, are you, in coordination with the ATF, planning to terminate the program?

We find it extremely troubling that the United States government would willfully allow weapons to be acquired by dangerous criminal and drug trafficking organizations, in direct contravention of our strategic and national interests. We look forward to receiving your responses to these questions in a timely manner.

New from Command Arms, makers of the Roni pistol-carbine conversion kits, is the latest in the line of Glock accessories: the Roni Recon.

The new drop in conversion kit turns your Glock into a subgun with forward grips, Picatinny rails and lighting tool mounts. The Recon is a bit shorter than the Roni G126, which has a telescoping stock and turns your Glock into an “assault rifle.”

The New RONI Recon (RONIRG1) Pistol housing converts your Glock to a weapon with a longer sight radius and a two handed weapon control. Add any optic on the 9.5 inch rail that runs the length of the RONIRG1. The ergonomic design will provide a heads up sight picture for improved target acquisition. The strategically placed rear sling swivel will let you add our one point sling (OPS) for added stability while engaging targets. Add a set of our front and rear (FFS / FRS) flip up sights for additional target acquisition. The included side rails will let you connect your favorite light or laser.

Legislation Will Protect Gun Rights on Army Corps of Engineers Land

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) plans to offer an amendment this week protecting gun rights on land controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Currently, guns are prohibited on Corps land, even when gun possession is otherwise allowed by state law. Rep. Gosar’s legislation would simply remove federal restrictions and allow for the law of the states (in which such land is located) to govern firearms possession.

The Gosar amendment, modeled after the Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act (H.R. 1865) introduced by pro-gun Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH), is similar to a 2009 law repealing the gun ban on National Park Service land. Army Corps of Engineers land was not part of that bill, something the Corps was quick to point out after that law took affect.

The Corps said, in a statement: “Public Law 111-024 does not apply to Corps projects or facilities . . . [and the Army Corps] will continue to prohibit loaded concealed weapons on Corps properties regardless of the new law and notwithstanding any contrary provisions of state law.”

The amendment will reverse the Corps’ decision and remedy the “oversight” of the lands bill.

“The Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act is a bipartisan effort that seeks to correct this oversight and restore Second Amendment rights to law-abiding citizens while they are legally camping, hunting, and fishing on the 11.7 million acres of Army Corps recreational property,” Rep. Gibbs said.

Rep. Gosar notes that “this amendment will restore continuity to federal lands and ensure that constitutional rights are consistently protected.”

Nationally, the Army Corps of Engineers controls 400 lake and river projects, 90,000 campsites and 4,000 miles of trails. A vote on the Gosar amendment could come as early as Thursday.

ACTION: Please contact your Representative and urge him or her to vote YES on the Gosar amendment.

It is only fitting that a few days after South Sudan became the newest independent country to join the roster of IMF and World Bank “modernization and industrialization” targets, another Southern version of something should break apart, although some may be surprised that this latest secession is not somewhere in the middle of Africa, but in America’s own insolvent back yard.

Meet Southern California. “Accusing Sacramento of pillaging local governments to feed its runaway spending and left-wing policies, a Riverside County politician is proposing a solution: He wants 13 mostly inland, conservative counties to break away to form a separate state of “South California.” Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Republican pharmacist from Temecula, called California an “ungovernable” financial catastrophe from which businesses are fleeing and where taxpayers are being crushed by the burden of caring for welfare recipients and illegal immigrants.”

Ah yes, the heart of prosperity that is the Inland Empire, known for such great achievements as Hell’s Angels, the most ridiculous excesses of the housing bubble, Del Taco, and… that’s pretty much it. This sounds like yet another Swiss Watch plan.

Remembrance

To die for one’s country is not only an act of bravery, it is THE act of bravery. For soldiers, it is just an extension of their military career, a part of their duty. As leaders have asked their soldiers to sacrifice themselves for the good of the society, it is only right for leaders to go through the same motion. They should practice what they have preached.

As war is seen as a noble act, tu sat serves as redemption in case of defeat. It is also a way to tell the enemy: “You might have won the battle/war but you don’t deserve to win because you don’t have the chinh nghia (just cause).” And it is not only just cause: it is the moral belief that the cause they are fighting for deserves their total sacrifice. Continues below

Follow by Email

Counter

Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
==============================
My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
=============================
My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
===========================
*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
============================
"His Colored Friends"
============================
Lee's Surrender
=============================
My Black NC Kinfolks
============================
Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.